my boss basicly said that although he understands why he wants the time off, he can't have it as it would leave us short staffed for those days
if there wasn't so many people off already at the other depots then perhaps we could have covered his runs from one of them but we can't so he cannot have the time off that he wants

he's taken this as a "come to work or don't bother" reply and is thinking abot what he wants to do as the house move may not happen on the day in question

my take on it is that, even thoguh family comes first for me as well, i would have gone to the top and pleaded my case and then asked for unpaid leave, which is how it works normally and you bypass the 2 other peole who are above me who deal with leave/hoilday/sickness/other absence